As You Like It - 2019 - West End Articles Page 2

In her first season as the new artistic director at Opera Theatre of St. Louis (OTSL), Patricia Racette has programmed a festival season that holds something for everyone. Three of the four Operas being presented are written in English. Two, Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance and The Light in the Piazza, are from the canon of the American Musical Theatre. The other two, A Streetcar Named Desire and Romeo and Juliet, are well known dramas. If you’ve never seen an Opera, this is the season to take in a show at OTSL.

The Duke's Theatre Company's open-air production of ROMEO AND JULIET, directed by Joseph Pitcher, will tour UK venues including Hever Castle and the Minack Theatre, featuring a cast of six.

The American Theatre Guild has announced its 2026-27 Broadway in Thousand Oaks season at the Bank of America Performing Arts Center, unveiling a lineup that leans strongly into music-driven storytelling and audience favorites while still offering discovery. The upcoming season includes Hadestown, The Bodyguard, and A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical as subscription titles, with The Carpenters Songbook: A Live Celebration offered as a special add-on engagement. All four productions mark Thousand Oaks premieres, continuing the Guild’s commitment to bringing major touring Broadway directly to Ventura County.

Wesleyan University has named its black box theater in the new Fries Arts Building the Lin-Manuel Miranda Theater, in honor of Lin-Manuel Miranda, who graduated from the university in 2002.

The National Theatre announced further casting and dates for its 2026 season, including Cate Blanchett in ELECTRA/PERSONA, Anne-Marie Duff in SOME WOMAN, and new casts for CLOUD 9 and THE RISE AND FALL OF LITTLE VOICE.

Julian Clary will return to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe for the first time in 17 years with FULLY DILATED, a limited ten-show run at Assembly Rooms' Music Hall, promising intimate revelations and his signature camp comedy.

Everyman Theatre will present Kate Hamill's adaptation of EMMA, directed by Laura Kepley, featuring the theatre's Resident Company in a feminist, contemporary take on Jane Austen's classic.

Friendship is nearly always a side element in musicals. From the comic sidekick of the leading character to the backup pals who provide background vocals, friends are part of the fabric of many shows—but rarely are they the main event. 

The Next Festival of Emerging Artists announced its 14th season, celebrating women immigrant composers with world premieres at PS21 in Chatham, NY, National Sawdust in Brooklyn, and Gibney Dance in NYC.

NEW YORK CITY CENTER announced programing for the 2026 –2027 Season—the largest in the institution’s history. It will include Encores! productions of Kiss of the Spider Woman, Hallelujah Baby, You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, and more.

Prospect Musicals announced the full line-up for its 2026 Gala & Muse Awards at The Edison Ballroom, honoring LaChanze, Ken Davenport, Lindsay Mendez, Ryan Scott Oliver, and Jose Antonio Vargas.

Created by Tony Award-winning Director/Choreographer Christopher Wheeldon and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage, the multiple Tony Award-winning musical MJ The Musical is coming to the San Diego Civic Theatre from May 5–10, bringing Michael Jackson’s singular moves and signature sound to the stage. 

East Midlands theatre company New Perspectives announced 14 early- and mid-career artists for its New Associates programme, now in its seventh year, supporting artists in a historically underfunded region.

A full auditorium of just over a hundred patrons filed into the newly renovated Warwick Theater for a re-imagination of Stephen King’s “The Shawshank Redemption.” This theatrical adaptation is written by Irish playwrights Owen O’Neill and Dave Johns, an unlikely yet inspired pairing. Both men came to prominence as stand-up comedians before turning their attention to drama. Owen O’Neil is present for this Saturday evening performance.  

It was just another day for the world when young Ting Han Lin sat down in the train, bass case resting against his knee, the hum of the metro tracks still vibrating in his ears. He was coming back home from a rehearsal during his first tour in Taiwan, exhausted, adrenaline still flickering, every note replaying in his mind. At twenty, his mind was filled with ideas, tones, transitions between songs, and about how the groove could have locked in tighter.

Before being cast in Lin-Manuel Miranda's Octet film, Amanda Seyfried didn't know much about his latest project, but wanted to star in the film anyway.

A production that reveals what the craft of theater can do when it trusts simplicity and emotion.

What did our critic think of FREEDOM! at St. James UMC In Little Rock?

Seattle's The Feast announced its 2026 season, including a remount of THE WEALTH WALK, a second iteration of ARTISTS DOING, and a workshop of William Saroyan's THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE, alongside a living-wage advocacy campaign.

Greg Doran, former artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company and celebrated Shakespearean, revives his acclaimed production of Venus and Adonis, Shakespeare's greatest narrative poem, for a limited UK tour starting in June.

I picked “I’d Rather Be Me” from Mean Girls: a song I’d loved since seeing the show on Broadway in 2019. It’s not a song you can just stand and sing. It demands more: movement, attitude, and energy. The whole song is about taking up space and not caring what anyone else thinks.

As a 13-year-old musical theater fanatic on her first trip to New York City, I stood at the Winter Garden Theatre stage door on a hot August afternoon in 2019.

Darilyn Burtley brings the essence of Tina Turner's stunning stage presence to life!

The Burry Fredrik Foundation has named scenic designer Jessie Baldinger as the recipient of the 2026 Burry Fredrik Design Fellowship and its $10,000 award.

Out of the knights, I knew the least about Monty Python, so I had a lot of catching up to do. I was building the plane as I was flying it, but they were so gracious in helping me learn about the style of comedy that it is.